Todd: Hello and welcome back to One-Hit Wonderland where we take a look back into the bands and artists only known for one song. Okay, NOW this is the last request. And after this, I can finally, finally go back to reviewing songs I want to review, such as...(?)...well I'm sure I'll think of something. And yet again, we are looking at a new wave MTV hit. Which, yes, it's certainly over-represented on this show.

Clip of The Human League - Keep Feeling Fascination

Todd (VO): After this, I'm not gonna touch another new wave song til, like, 2023.

Todd: But this isn't just any MTV new wave hit here.

Clip of "Video Killed the Radio Star"

Todd (VO): This is the MTV new wave hit. This is the defining, breakthrough moment of the entire music video era. That's right, we're yet again going back...

Todd: ...to the 70's.

Buggles: Video killed the radio starVideo killed the radio star

Todd (VO): Yes, believe it or not, the song that's widely perceived as having kicked off the 80's wasn't even from the 80's, and landed at #1 in the UK two months before the decade started!

Trevor: They took the credit for your second...

Todd (VO): In America, the song will forever be associated with the fact that it was the first music video ever played on MTV on August 1st, 1981.

Todd: 'Cause on its original release, "Video Killed the Radio Star" did not cross over.

Clip of the video

Todd (VO): It only barely scraped onto the Top 40. And by that, I mean it reached [snapshot of the Billboard Hot 100] #40 on the charts and no higher.

Todd: Which is really just fitting in the most bluntly obvious way possible. Of course it didn't do well on the charts! In 1979, success on Billboard was mostly driven by promotion on the radio.

Todd (VO): It couldn't get big until there was a real platform for music videos. And it's not like MTV's original launch was seen by very many people, [clip of 80s MTV bumper] but when it did become the decade defining phenomenon we know it as now, it was hard to see "Video Killed the Radio Star" as anything but a prophecy come true.

Todd: And yet, if this was a future that they predicted...

Clip of the video

Todd (VO): ...why weren't they a part of it? If there was anyone who had their fingers on the pulse of popular music, it was these guys. Well, it turns out the Buggles' career arc is..

Todd: ...one of the stranger ones I've covered on One Hit Wonderland.

Todd (VO): It's, uh...yeah, this one's a little all over the place. So, let's get to it.

Todd: Let us autopsy the radio star and find out how it was killed. Oh-wuh-oh!

​Todd (VO): ...where all the bands in the world were fake and being run by this crazy mad scientist with a computer pumping out shitty perversions of good music. Like...

Todd: ...[image of...] a shitty version of the Beatleswould be the Buggles. And for some reason, they made this the name of their band.

​Todd (VO): Yeah, they have admitted multiple times that the name's terrible, and it was a stupid idea, but their excuse is, you know, they didn't really care at the time. They were just out of school, they didn't know a goddamn thing about anything.

Todd: Anyway, there's only two actual Buggles. [The Age of Plastic album covers with...] The singer is Trevor Horn, and the keyboardist is Geoffrey Downes. And there was also a third guy, Bruce Woolley, and they wrote a bunch of songs together, but Bruce got signed as a solo act.

Video for "Video Killed the Radio Star"

Todd (VO): And then the Buggles also got signed, so...they both recorded the songs they wrote together on both of their separate albums including "Video Killed the Radio Star." So let's...

Todd: Let's check out Bruce's version.

Live performance of Bruce Woolley's "Video Killed the Radio Star"

Bruce Woolley: I met your children

What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star

Video killed the radio star

Todd (VO): Yeah, it's a-it's a little less polished, a little punkier, a little more Elvis Costello. There's a whole alternate universe where this is the version that got big, but...

Todd: ...it didn't 'cause, as far as I can tell, they did not film an actual music video for it.

Cover of Bruce Woolley's "Video Killed the Radio Star"

Todd (VO): Which, pfffft, I mean come on! [video is circled and blinks] What song do you think you're singing? It needs a video!

Todd: Let's look at a proper version with a real video.

The Big Hit

Video for "Video Killed the Radio Star" starts playing

Todd (VO): When I hear "Video Killed the Radio Star," I think of...

Todd: ...the future.

Trevor Horn: I heard you on the wireless...

Todd (VO): Which, you know, this song really shouldn't still have the power to do that. I mean it's the future as imagined [poster for The Humanoid] in 1979. I don't even know any of the radio stars that video killed.

Todd: Marveling at how [image of...] TV supplanted radio. I mean, that's...it may as well be saying [stuffy British accent] "Oh, my word! Can you believe those horseless carriages are putting our buggy drivers out of work?"

Buggles: Video killed the radio star

Todd (VO): Hell, there is no video star anymore! Music videos are less relevant than ever. [images of...] MP3s killed the video star. [...followed by...] Spotify killed the MP3 star, [...and...] and music that we swallow in pill form will kill the Spotify star someday not very long from now. So, video killed the radio star with all its up to date hip futuristic outfits, and sci-fi sets from the '70s. This should be a camp artifact. This should feel about as dated as an episode of [image from...] Battlestar Galactica.

Trevor: Put the blame on VTR

Todd: The hell's a [image of Sony VCR with quesion marks] VCR?

Trevor: Lying awake intent at tuning in on you

Todd (VO): So the really amazing thing, is that even with all the time that's passed, "Video Killed the Radio Star" is still as powerful as it was three decades ago. And that's at least partly because even as it evokes the future...

Todd: ...it's also a tribute to the past. A world that's gone by.

Trevor: We hear the playback and it seems so long ago

Todd (VO): "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song about nostalgia.

Todd: You right now are all feeling nostalgia for nostalgia.

Todd (VO): "Video Killed the Radio Star" can't become dated because it was already dated when it was released.

Buggles: Oh-a-aho oh

Todd (VO): Even in 1979, I have to believe this stuff looked cheesy, and on purpose. What with its mad scientist getup and the Star Trek alien babes.

Trevor: They took the credit for your second symphony

Todd (VO): It's about radio stars whose careers were ended by television I guess. Which honestly I've never heard of that. Did that happen?

Todd: Were there stars who couldn't make the jump to TV? Were they just that ugly?

Todd (VO): I mean the music of the '50s and the '60s and even the '70s don't really seem all that image centric. Certainly not the way the '80s were. Even in the video, the images of radio stars look fake and phony.

Todd: I really love this video by the way.

Todd (VO): In fact, you can kinda see the same image that was allegedly their origin story. A mad scientist manufacturing music with his evil mega computer.

Todd: Not only did the Buggles predict MTV, they also predicted people complaining about MTV, [pissy] 'cause it used to be about the music, man!

Todd (VO): And it just sounds so good. The hooks, the production, it's perfect. If it's a dated future, it's still absolutely gorgeous. [image of Bruce Woolley cover] Bruce Woolley's version was never gonna be a hit...

Todd (VO): But the Buggles' sleeker, shinier version captured something bigger that the other version just doesn't. Also it doesn't have the backup singers going, "Oh-a oh." Which, I mean let's be real, that's super important.

Todd: I mean this song just lays on the hooks.

Buggles: Video killed the radio star

Todd (VO): So, now we know how it has killed the radio star.

Todd: Who killed the Buggles' star?

The Failed Follow Up

Todd (VO): The Buggles released three more singles off their first album, all of which had rapidly decreasing success on the charts.

Todd: And again, I mean all in the UK. In America, we'd still never heard of them at this point. So let's check them out.

Video for "Living in the Plastic Age" starts

Todd (VO): Okay, their second single was the title track-or almost the title track-"Living in the Plastic Age." Certainly a...

Todd: ...fitting and prophetic theme for all the same reasons as "Video Killed the Radio Star." Let's take a listen.

Trevor: Talking fast I make a deal

Buy the fake and sell what's real

Ah, what's this...

Todd (VO): Okay, first off this sounds like a weird mix of Devo and ABBA.

Buggles: Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah

Trevor: They send the heart police

To put you under cardiac arrest

And as they drag you...

Todd (VO): I-I don't know. I-I kinda like it. But, I can see why it didn't catch on. First off, it's not nowhere as slick as "Radio Star." It's too herky-jerky, and there's way too much going on.

Trevor: Plastic Age

Todd (VO): Seriously, what the hell is happening?

Trevor: Hello, doctor, lift my face

I wish my skin could stand the pace

Todd (VO): Okay. Where "Radio Star" evoked a shiny, Star Trek sci-fi future, this sounds more like Doctor Frankenstein toying with the forces of nature.

Todd: I mean, I'm enjoying it, but it's not very pop.

Todd (VO): Also the video is lame and dated in all the ways "Video Killed the Radio Star" wasn't. Let-let's just enjoy.

Trevor: They send the heart police

To put you under cardiac arrest

Todd (VO): This is just great. Wh-what were they even going for? In the age of plastic, there are hooded cave monks, and women are turned into keyboard stands in blackface. Okay, I think I've [video for Michael Sembello - "Automatic Man"] found my new "Automatic Man." Anyway let's try the next one.

Live performance of "Clean Clean"

Trevor: Johnny drove the halftrack

'Cause we could not find the Jeep

Wake me in the morning gotta get some sleep

Driving all night...

Todd (VO): Huh. I like the way this one chugs away. Got a little, uhh, Billy Idol type groove to it.

Trevor: God you know it's hard to keep the fighting clean

Trevor & Buggles: Clean clean

Todd stifles a laugh

Clean clean

Todd (VO): Okay, never mind. Now it just sounds silly.

Video for "Elstree"

Todd (VO): And finally we have, "Elstree," a romantic ode to an old British movie studio.

Trevor: Elstree, remember me

I had a part in a B movie

Todd (VO): I think it's trying to evoke the same kind of washed-away nostalgia that "Radio Star" did, but...it's-it's...it's just not the same. I will say this though: I wished they created videos for all the other songs on that album, which had more promising titles like, [track listing with songs underlined] "Johnny On The Monorail", "I Love You (Miss Robot)", and "Astroboy."

Todd: I've listened to them. Believe me-they do live up to their titles.

Did they Ever do Anything Else?

Todd: Yeah, yeah. They, uhh, they-they did do other stuff. They, umm...[pause] They joined Yes.

Live performance of Yes - "Roundabout"

Jon Anderson: I'll be the roundabout

Todd (VO): Yes, Yes. You know, the-the prog rock band, Yes. Huge in the '70s. Did really complicated songs that went for like fifteen minutes.

Todd: Okay, so in 1980, they lost their...

Todd (VO): ...lead singer, Jon Anderson, and their star virtuoso keyboardist, Rick Wakeman...and the remaining members ran into the Buggles in the studio and were like, "Hey. Would you like to be our new lead singer and keyboard player?" And...and they said yes to Yes.

Todd: Let me repeat...

Todd (VO): One of the top selling acts of the '70s, a serious, hardcore progressive rock band, lost their two most important members and replaced them with [photo of...] the Buggles, a fluky novelty act with one album.

Todd: This is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard of in rock history. I-imagine if [clip of Muse - "Uprising"] the lead singer of Muse quit, and they replaced him with the guy from [clip of Magic - "Rude"] Magic. That's about how much sense this makes to me. But, it happened.

Performance of Yes - "Into the Lens"

Trevor Horn: Take heart

I could never let you go

Todd (VO): They joined Yes, and they recorded an album in 1980, and...obviously this record came out after the band's peak. But hardcore Yes fans widely agreed that it was, indeed... [album cover for Drama] an album.

Todd: [throws hands up] It's okay apparently.

Todd (VO): But a lot of Yes fans at the time were not ready for this change. For one, Jon Anderson has the range like an opera tenor, and Trevor Horn sounds like Microsoft Sam. The album didn't do that badly, but Yes was like, "This was weird. Maybe we should call it quits." And they did.

Todd: And then a couple years later, most of the original band [photo of the whole band] reunited, and...look the story of Yes is really complicated.

Video for "Into the Lens"

Trevor: I am a camera

Todd (VO): But the Buggles' story continued. Which turned out to be good timing as by now, MTV had launched, and the Buggles were seeing spikes in sales in America. Unfortunately, what with all the time spent with Yes, and Geoffrey Downes was in the middle of starting a new band...

Todd: ...the-the music never really came together and, the second album flopped.

Todd (VO): And the Buggles never ever released a third album because eventually, Trevor Horn had to come to the conclusion that Trevor Horn is not a rock star.

Todd: Duh. I mean he looks like [image of...] Al Franken. Downes meanwhile had that other band I was talking about. [photo of new band] See, he joined up with some members of some other bands like Yes and King Crimson...and they put together a new band. A new little band called [opening chords of...wait for it...] Asia.

Video for Asia - "Heat of the Moment"

John Wetton: It was the heat of the moment

Telling me what my heart meant

Todd (VO): Asia was actually like...a-a serious thing in-in the '80s. They were big for a-for a while, so don't write them out. That's-that's a big deal.

Todd: But that's NOTHING compared to what Trevor Horn accomplished.

Video for ABC - "The Look of Love"

ABC: That's the look, that's the look

Martin Fry: The look of love...

Todd (VO): You see... while he was promoting his second album, he also started doing production work for other bands. And, it really started to take off.

Video for Yes - "Owner of a Lonely Heart"

Jon Anderson: Owner of a lone...

Todd (VO): He even got to work with Yes again and, gave them their biggest hit.

Jon: Owner of a lonely heart...

Todd VO): And besides those songs, what else has he produced? Well...

Todd: EVERYTHING!

Second music video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Relax"

Holly Johnson: Relax, don't do it, when you wanna go to it

Todd (VO): I mean I knew this already but in case you didn't, Trevor Horn is, [video for Rod Stewart - "Downtown Train"] a superstar producer who has made, tons of hits, over the course of the next 30 years! [video for Art of Noise - "Close (To the Edit)"] He also had, a techno-group, producer-collective that was pretty popular at the time, Art of Noise. [clip of Pet Shop Boys - "Always On My Mind"] And he, produced many other synth hits. And, he also...

Video for Seal - "Kiss from a Rose" plays, namely the "Batman Forever" version

Seal: Baby...

Todd (VO): What, seriously, "Kiss from a Rose"?! Jesus! And, uh...

Video for LeAnn Rimes - "Can't Fight the Moonlight"

LeAnn Rimes: But you know, but you know that you...

Todd (VO): Man, that too huh? And...

Video for t.A.T.U. - "All the Things She Said"

t.A.T.U.: All the things she said, all the things she said...

Todd (VO): Oh, come on! That doesn't even make any sense, how?!

Todd: And, the guy's still out there, still working, so...

Todd (VO): ...[clip of Robbie Williams - "Shame"] who knows? The next Lady Gaga hit, could come from him.

Todd: It could happen!

Did they Deserve Better?

Todd just shrugs

Todd: Sure.

Video for "Video Killed the Radio Star"

Buggles: Video killed the radio star...

Todd (VO): I mean I'm sure Trevor Horn isn't weeping that The Buggles weren't more successful as he sits on his pile of gold records but... yeah, yeah sure, I-I would've been fine with them having more hits. I can't imagine that ever happening; they were far too weird but... I mean [stutters a bit], yeah. What would've been the harm?

Todd: The Buggles. A strange band... that... wrote the future. Pffft.

Closing tag song: "Video Killed the Radio Star" - The Presidents of the United States of America